Registered a domain with Google and want to set up your own home server?

At first this task seems impossible. I was ready to transfer my registration and spend a few extra bucks with another DNS provider. However, I tinkered and took to searching the web instead and finally found a solution.

This article assumes that when you registered your domain with Google that Enom was used as your register. It also assumes you have a server for hosting your pages and it is operational. By operational I mean you can use your ip address directly to access your web site hosted on your server.

The first thing to do is find a nameserver. A nameserver is DNS server that will keep track of your domain name, such www.mydomain.com, and tell it what ip address you want associated with your domain name. I chose Zone edit. www.zoneedit.com. Once you register an account with zone edit, click on Add Zone and enter your domain name and click add zone. Now click on the Edit Zone menu option, Select the domain name you added. And Click on the menu option entitled WebForward. Fill in the information for the redirects using this format: http://xx.xxx.xxx.xx. Select cloaked for your redirects if you want your domain name to appear in the browser for anyone landing on your website, otherwise they will see your ip address when browsing. Select change and select the default option regarding your redirect. Now when you click on Edit Zone you can find information on Zone Edit’s name servers, information you will need shortly.

Open up another tab in your browser and go to your Google administration account. From the dashboard, select Domain Settings, Domain Names, and finally Advanced DNS settings. This brings up your domain account name and password with Enom. You will need this information before selecting the link Sign in to DNS console. Click the link to sign into your account.

Once you are signed in you want to choose edit in the panel entitled DNS Information and select custom. This is where you enter the two Zone edit nameservers. After you have entered them select save and you are done.

Zone edit states that it can take up to 72 hours to see the changes, but I could use my domain in less than hour.

I hope this helped someone.